When she woke up, Twilight did her usual bed stretch. She completely forgot that she was outside, or a rabbit, or cuddled up with a larger one. Of course, this sudden motion woke up Angel too.
"Huh?" The white bunny lifted his head from his lazy stupor. "Oh." he let out a huge yawn before continuing. "Good morning Titania." he said lazily. He rolled over off of her and stretched.
"Good morning Angel." Twilight replied after a second, remembering her persona.
Angel rubbed his head on Titania's. "You want some breakfast?"
"Sure."
"What do you want? We have cherries, grapes, various grains and seeds. Make a choice."
Twilight thought for a moment. "I'd be okay with just about anything."
Angel hopped over to a pile of small red fruit. He brought two back over to his new friend, and they each ate one happily.
"That was good, thanks!" She gave an innocent smile. "Now, how about we go get something to drink?" Twilight suggested.
"Nothing goes better with some food than some water."
"Umm, yeah, sure."
The two hopped to the back of the bed clearing and Angel led the way a short distance to a stream. The two took long sips of the crystal clear water. A ways down, a small fish leaped from the water and made a pleasant splash.
Twilight looked over at Angel. "Angel, I have a couple questions." her face lost all emotion and she went serious.
"Ok?" he laughed lightly. "What do you want to know?"
"Has Fluttershy been acting, odd, lately?" She stepped close to the bunny.
Angel thought for a moment. "Yeah I guess. Why do you want to know Titania?"
"When was the last time she went out in the forest?" Twilight stepped closer, cutting off all of Angel's personal space.
He looked around for an escape. "What's gotten into you?"
"Don't dodge the question."
"Titania, I'm not feeling comfortable right now."
"Answer me. Are you covering for her? When was she last in the forest?"
"I don't know, like, two weeks ago?"
"That gives about one week." Twilight muttered. She stared Angel down hard. "Was she already acting weird at this time?"
Angel took a step back, his paw slipped into the stream for a second before he pulled it back out. "It was after that."
"Did you pay much attention to her that day?"
"Yeah, why? She went fishing, she needed some food for the bear and chimera."
"Did you see blood on her hooves?"
"She was fishing, so of course, she probably gutted them!"
Twilight backed off. "Thank you, now, if you value your safety, you do not tell anyone, especially Fluttershy, about this encounter."
Angel nodded his head before darting into some nearby underbrush. Twilight heard sobbing from the cluster of leaves. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to tell what was going through his head. He obviously loved Titania, and now she just went crazy psycho and asked all these questions. Heck, just the questioning would scare most, the love part just made it worse.
Twilight scoffed. "Weak." she wandered back towards the clearing where she slept the night before. She looked around one last time. After her years of helping her friend take care of the animals, she'd never found this place. I better get back while Spike still remembers how to use that tome. She left the clearing and headed towards her treehouse in town. Her purple rabbit guise, somehow, kept ponies away, so stealth was not a necessity in town. "SPIIIIIIIKE!" she shouted when she arrived. Of course, the young drake only heard a loud squeak.
"Oh, Twilight, you're back!" A familiar purple dragon hopped down the stairs and up to a bookshelf. He took a specific book off the third shelf and took out a page. "This one right?" there was a dull yellow glow around it.
Twilight nodded to say yes.
Spike traced the shape on the paper and said the spell's name. "Undo transformation!" The paper shot off a blinding light towards the purple rabbit. She slowly grew and reformed her body until she was her normal unicorn state.
"Thank you Spike. I cannot stress how helpful that was." Twilight stretched forward, several loud pops came from her spine. "Ugh, I just couldn't get those spots as a rabbit, not enough vertebrae. It's weird, I still felt that I needed to crack them." She then rolled her head left and right and got similar results to her back.
Spike cringed at the sound. "Now that sounded painful." he thought for a moment. "So, what information did you get?"
"A week before the skeleton was found, she went into the forest supposedly to go fishing. Her supplies of those usually last her a month, she had days left when I went into the cottage as the rabbit, so, there's no way she fished two weeks ago. Plus, she had blood on her hooves when she returned. I never saw the bear or chimera there, so they were probably getting ready for hibernation." Twilight paused. Her forehead scrunched as she was in obviously deep thought. "But, it's summer, so that can't be it."
Spike hopped up on a chair and swung his legs. "I don't know. I saw her pass by today, she was getting some groceries, so she couldn't have been murdering any pony. The bear and the chimera could've been anywhere."
Twilight used her magic to make an over-sized whiteboard appear in the room. She took a black marker and wrote down all of their evidence and open spaces in stories at the bottom, and all possible suspects at the top. She even included Rarity's fisher, and Celestia, just to be on the safe side. "Ok, so. Fluttershy's blood ties to Fluttershy perfectly." she drew a line between the two. "Same as her absence and the location of the skeleton. Her refusal to aid in the investigation ties with her and Celestia." she continually went through all combinations of evidence and suspect, explaining each one to Spike. Any that made perfect sense had a solid line, while disputable ones got dotted lines. She analyzed the connections thoroughly to make sure none were missed or incorrect, Spike helped as much as he could.
"So, what was the whole purpose of those last two hours?" Spike pondered.
"Well." Twilight looked at her little dragon. "I've been going off of a point basis, solid lines are two, dotted are one. From what we've gathered so far, the number one suspect is Fluttershy, with 11 points. Her predatory animals combined come in second with 9, and the fisher pony is a close third with 8."
Spike's jaw dropped. "So it was Fluttershy?"
"No, she's just top suspect, it could still be any pony. Even Rainbow Dash is a possibility, and we haven't even seen or heard of her since the incident. Wow, isn't it odd? We've only heard of or from our friends when we need them since we saw the skeleton."
"That, that is actually very interesting. Now that you mention it, where are Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie? And where did Rarity even go?" A chill ran down his spine as he imagined what had happened.
Twilight shook the thoughts out of her head. "No, we can't worry about them right now. What matters is Cherilee is dead, and there's a murderer on the loose."